Deeplinks Blog posts about Transparency

Note: The updated datasets are now located on our California Database Catalogs hub. As of Oct. 4, 2016, the spreadsheets on this page will no longer be updated.

A team of over 40 transparency activists aimed their browsers at California this past weekend, collecting more than 400 database catalogs from local government agencies, as required under a new state law. Together, participants in the California Database Hunt shined light on thousands upon thousands of government record systems.

Across the country, civilian journalists have documented government violence using cell phones to record police activities, forcing a much-needed national discourse. But in case after case after case after case, the people who face penalties in the wake of police violence are the courageous and quick-witted residents who use technology to enable transparency.

A new federal government policy will result in the government releasing more of the software that it creates under free and open source software licenses. That’s great news, but doesn’t go far enough in its goals or in enabling public oversight.

A few months ago, we wrote about a proposed White House policy regarding how the government handles source code written by or for government agencies. The White House Office of Management and Budget (OMB) has now officially enacted the policy with a few changes. While the new policy is a step forward for government transparency and open access, a few of the changes in it are flat-out baffling.

Imagine if local governments were like restaurants, where you could pick up a menu of public datasets, read the names and description, then order whatever suits your open data appetite?

This transparency advocate’s fantasy became reality in California on July 1, when a new law took effect. S.B. 272 added a section to the California Public Records Act that requires local agencies (except school districts) to publish inventories of “enterprise systems” on their websites. We are talking about catalogs of every database that holds information on the public or serves as a primary source of government data.

And we need your help on Saturday, Aug. 27 to—as the saying goes—catch ‘em all.

Despite strong opposition in Congress and from the grassroots, the FBI is still pushing to expand its National Security Letter (NSL) authority. The proposed amendments would allow the FBI to serve companies with NSLs and obtain a wide range of Internet records, known as Electronic Communication Transactional Records (ECTRs), including browsing history.